35. The Collab Stream

"Anyway, let's get to the recording, shall we?"

"Hahaha! We're going to work you hard today, so brace yourself!"

From then on, the composer directed me far more strictly than last time, and drove me relentlessly.

"Ah!"

Hm. My voice still works.

I'd assumed my throat would be wrecked, since the trip here took longer than I expected—but my vocal cords were still in perfectly good shape.

"Yeonwoo-ssi, you have the most durable voice of anyone I've ever worked with."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. Even people with better technique than you would need to rest their voices if I pushed them this hard."

Truly, the TS buff at work…!

Today, as ever, I offered silent praise to that generous buff for making my life easier in so many ways.

"Oh, Composer-nim."

Come to think of it, I'd been meaning to ask about this, hadn't I? I almost forgot.

"Yes?"

"Are you working on the new song we talked about?"

I had no intention of rushing him. There was still plenty of time before our first full album.

I was asking purely out of curiosity. Just hearing what genre he had in mind would satisfy me.

"Oh, that?"

"Yes."

"I've written the melody."

"Really?"

Already?

"Yes. Would you like to hear it?"

"Sure."

And so I listened to the composer's new song.

Hm….

"This is ours, right?"

"Yes. Of course."

"You're sure?"

"Huh? Is the file wrong?"

The composer checked the file at my question, then spoke with total conviction.

"Yes. This is definitely a Solana song?"

"Iiiis it?"

At this point, it clearly was….

"…Do you perhaps not like it?"

"No, it's not that…."

This was a song from a different group….

A mega-hit song, at that….

It felt like… I was committing theft, of a kind.

So this is the dilemma regressed people face…!

I sorted through my tangled thoughts and decided to keep it simple.

Right—the future as I knew it no longer existed anyway. It had already changed.

If our group won an award on a music show, would I need to feel guilty for "stealing" it from the group that won it before my regression?

No. We'd win it because we earned it.

And thinking it through like that, a realization dawned on me.

…Come to think of it, had I been living so cautiously because I was afraid of changing the future I knew too much?

Compared to the regressed protagonists in all those novels, I had lived a remarkably quiet life.

My biggest change had been joining Solana—that's how tame I'd been.

…I'm overthinking this.

It felt like too weighty a topic to settle here and now, so I shelved it for later and buried it in a corner of my mind.

"It's just that the song is too good."

"Ah! Right?! I was thinking I'd really outdone myself this time!"

"Yes. I'm looking forward to recording it for the first full album."

"Actually, hearing what you said just now gave me an idea!"

The composer's face lit up, practically vibrating with excitement.

"What is it?"

"What if, on the assumption that this song kicks off a city pop trend, I remake your song as a city pop track instead?!"

So my comment really left an impression on him….

But,

"Ah, that's a bit…."

I felt bad throwing cold water on him, but some things had to be said.

"I'm sorry?"

"Unless you're writing me a second song on top of it, that demo we just heard is far too good to give away."

Setting aside the dilemma I'd fallen into earlier—now that I'd heard it as mine, I had no intention of handing it back.

Giving something and then snatching it away is the worst thing a person can do, isn't it?

"…Understood."

Fortunately, the composer seemed to privately agree with me, and let it go.

A few days later.

Today was finally the release day of Beast Hunter.

Which also meant it was collab stream day.

"Hello, everyone."

"I'm happy to see you all too."

Everyone welcomed me so enthusiastically that I hardly knew where to put myself.

"Should I open the game and do character creation while we wait?"

Leaving the ever-welcoming chat window behind, I launched the game.

Watching the loading screen, I voiced the question I'd been mulling over since earlier.

"Hmm… which weapon should I use?"

Beast Hunter had fourteen weapons in total—greatsword, blade, twin blades, and so on—and I genuinely couldn't decide which to try.

First off, my main weapon before the regression had been the wild axe, so that one was out.

If I was going to play, I should try something different.

Hmm… those are all kind of middle-of-the-road….

Oh?

"The hammer looks good. I'll take it."

The hammer's sheer heft promised satisfying, weighty hits.

And since all the weapons I'd used before the regression were slash-focused, going blunt would feel fresh, wouldn't it?

The moment I settled on a weapon, the loading finished and the game's intro cutscene began.

"Making a scene as the newbie feels a little much, so I'll go with A."

"It wouldn't have mattered if I'd picked B, you know."

I'd played it before the regression.

I don't remember the exact line, but I recalled the scene just moving on with a "Wow, what a bold one!"

But despite my persuasion, the viewers kept chanting for B.

"Fine. Whatever."

The only reason I hadn't was because it led nowhere.

"See? I told you it was nothing."

"Ah, so character creation comes now."

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As I finished speaking, the character creation screen popped up.

"Character creation…."

Too much effort….

I'll just hit random.

With my mind made up, I set the character's gender to female and rolled the dice.

Playing a female character is the unspoken rule, after all.

Random generation is convenient, sure, but it produces some profoundly ugly children.

Then again, given the nature of the game, you'd rarely see the face anyway—and the other members would surely make theirs pretty—so going ugly was honestly a sound strategy.

Once I finished character creation and cleared the tutorial, a call came in.

Riiing, riiing!

Oh, is it collab time already?

I checked the clock—seven o'clock sharp.

Riiing!

"Hello, everyone."

I answered the call and greeted them.

"What is it."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Um…."

But I definitely told her it was a new release…?

Wondering if I'd made a mistake, I went back and checked the message I'd sent.

According to it, I had clearly written that the game was coming out today.

The chat window was being a bit more colorful about it, but they were thinking exactly the same thing I was.

"Shall we move over to the group call for now?"

Checking the group call, I found the other collab members—Yerin, Yubin, and Yuna—all gathered.

Ring!

"Shiru-ssi."

…I haven't even said anything yet.

"No, I get that you're sorry. How many minutes are we looking at?"

"So how many minutes?"

Huh? That's less time than I expected.

"Then I'll grab something to eat and hit the bathroom for twenty minutes. You can fill the sound, right?"

"Of course, if Shiru-ssi says, 'Don't go… oppa,' I'll sit right here and wait."

At Yerin's question, I answered as if it were obvious.

"Why ask when you already know."

"Because I figured that would embarrass her more. Besides, our streams skew male."

"I can hear you."

"Aha!"

Well, that aside.

"So—will you do it?"

"Hurry up. Depending on your answer, the state of my bladder will change."

"Good call."

"Stop stalling and get it over with."

"Well done."

But,

"What I asked for was 'Don't go… oppa.' Not 'Oppa… don't go'?"

"I will. Do say it."

With those words, I could hear her taking a deep breath.

"Very nicely done. Then, I'll be back after a quick bathroom break."

Yuna's shriek came pouring out of the headset resting on my desk.

What a pleasant sound….

It struck me all over again just how lovely her voice really was.